author: Bart Swiatek
AC: Odyssey - Ban on Farming Experience Using Mission Creator
Ubisoft has decided to ban the use of Story Creator for Assassin's Creed Odyssey to create simple missions that offer a huge amount of experience. Players who do not comply with the new rules risk being banned.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- Ubisoft has banned the use of AC:O Story Creator to create quests that make it easier to level up characters;
- Existing missions will be hidden in the system;
- Players who do not abide by the rules can be banned;
- The game sells items that speed up gaining experience (for real money).
One of the surprises of Ubisoft during this year's E3 fair was the story creator to Assassin's Creed Odyssey. The solution is currently in the testing phase, but the players have already come up with the idea of using the novelty to quickly develop their characters - very simple missions were created, which provided a lot of experience. It turns out that Ubisoft did not like such a way of using the tool - the company decided to ban it.
Story Creator is not for "farmers"...
Story Creator Mode was designed to be a tool for players to let their creativity and imagination run free as they build their very own Stories to share with others, using a modified version of the tools our own designers used to develop the quests in the game. However, since the launch of the beta we have noticed an increasing flow of “farming quests,” that exploit the tool to get large amounts of XP. These exploits risk jeopardizing the overall quality, integrity, and purpose of Story Creator Mode and results in less visibility for the creative, interesting and frankly fantastic community stories that have been published.
The rules for using story creator will be changed accordingly. Devs will also make sure that existing quests of this type are not recommended, and in the future, such quests reported as an exploit will be completely hidden. In addition, players who continue to create such content may be punished, but the company does not specify how it intends to do it.
...but why not, actually?
On the one hand, you can understand developers who make sure that the quests created by players do not spoil their work. On the other hand... since this tool is already in the hands of users, creating additional prohibitions and threatening the consequences in case of breaking them seems a bit ridiculous - especially since we are talking about a single player game, and no one forces players to download additional quests.
The spice of the whole affair is added by thefact that the shop inside the game sells aids that speed up the process of gaining experience. Their presence - combined with a rather lengthy campaign requiring, according to some, a tedious grind - has been a subject of criticism and controversy in the past.
In view of all this... does anyone really believe that the real reason for the ban is to make sure that players don't accidentally spoil their fun? Or maybe - according to the well-known Ockham's razor principle - the answer is much simpler and much more connected to greed?
